Seattle 'Dive Bar' Bans Google Glass Far Ahead of Its Release

A "seedy and notorious" bar in Seattle today became the first U.S. business to ban Google's Glass wearable-headset video camera. But it surely won't be the last, according to CIO.com's Al Sacco. Here's why.

A Seattle watering hole called The 5 Point Café is making headlines this morning due to a cleverly-planned marketing scheme and announcement from its owner, who says that Google's upcoming Glass gadget will be banned on the bar's premises.

"If you’re one of the few who are planning on going out and spending your savings on Google Glasses – what will for sure be a new fad for the fanny-pack wearing never removing your bluetooth headset wearing crowd – plan on removing them before you enter The 5 Point. The 5 Point is officially a No Google Glass zone."

"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

The reason?

"[Y]ou have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known...and definitely don't want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet," said Dave Meinert, the bar's owner, in an interview on Seattle's KIRO-FM.

Hmmm. If there's one thing I know about truly seedy, notorious bars—and I admit, I know something—it's that their owners don't usually talk to the media about how seedy and notorious they are.

So why might Mr. Meinert be banning Google Glass, the odd, wearable video-camera headset thing that's designed to document and share experiences of the person wearing the "glasses?"

Publicity, publicity, publicity, of course. And it appears to have worked. You are probably nowhere near Seattle right now and you're reading about some random bar. And I'm writing about it.

Still, The 5 Point Café may be the first business to officially ban Google Glass, which was unveiled last summer at Google's annual I/O developer conference, but it surely won't be the last. The whole idea is creepy, invasive and just plain weird enough to actually catch on. I don't know about you but the thought of seeing everyday folks walking around the city, on the train or in the mall wearing Google Glass pains me.

Google is currently targeting a late 2013 or early 2014 release date for Glass, so it shouldn't be too long before you starting seeing early adopters sporting these silly and expensive shades.